Apple Swift Playgrounds: Here’s What Kids Can Code And Create

Apple Swift Playgrounds 1.5 update will be available as a free download on the App Store beginning June 5.

Apple Swift Playgrounds 1.5 update will be available as a free download on the App Store beginning June 5.
(Image: Apple)

Apple has announced that Swift Playgrounds, its educational coding app for iPad, will offer a new way to learn to code using robots, drones and musical instruments. Apple is working with leading device makers to make it easy to connect to Bluetooth-enabled robots within the Swift Playgrounds app, allowing kids to programme and control popular devices, including LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3, Sphero SPRK+, Parrot drones and more.

The Swift Playgrounds 1.5 update will be available as a free download on the App Store beginning June 5.

“More than 1 million kids and adults from around the world are already using Swift Playgrounds to learn the fundamentals of coding with Swift in a fun and interactive way,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Now they can instantly see the code they create and directly control their favourite robots, drones and instruments through Swift Playgrounds. It’s an incredibly exciting and powerful way to learn.”

With Swift Playgrounds, anyone can programme and control these popular devices from within the app:

— LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 are incredibly popular in schools around the world and give students the power to explore coding through real-life problem solving as they create and command their own robotic LEGO creatures, vehicles, machines and inventions. With Swift Playgrounds kids can code and interact with their creations’ motors and sensors.

— Sphero SPRK+, a popular robotic ball, rolls, turns, accelerates and changes colours. Sensors provide feedback when Sphero hits an obstacle, and all of it can be controlled with Swift code.— Parrot’s Mambo, Airborne and Rolling Spider drones can take off, land, turn and perform aerial figures like flips, all under the control of code users create.

— UBTECH’s Jimu Robot MeeBot Kit lets kids programme their buildable robot to walk, wave and dance.— Dash by Wonder Workshop is an exciting, hands-on learning robot for students in grades K-5, designed to teach the fundamentals of coding, creative problem solving and computational thinking.— Skoog is a tactile cube that enables children of all abilities to have fun exploring, creating and playing music with Swift code.